Every day, dental clinics across Canada handle a lot of sensitive information. Between patient scheduling, clinical records, financial information, payroll, and co-ordination with other healthcare and insurance providers, dentists and dental hygienists need to know where to find the information they’re looking for at a moment’s notice.
This means how and where to store information can be a major issue. As anyone who works in a dental clinic knows, the days of keeping patient files in manila folders is long gone for most – but just because clinics use computers now doesn’t mean the storage question has gone away.
As a solution, many clinics have started to backup their practice data in the Cloud. But some practices have told me that they have doubts about the Cloud’s safety. In addition, simply backing up data in the Cloud is only part of the solution and thus only mitigates part of the risk. If the data you access every day to run your practice still resides on a local server, you remain highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. To help, I’ve prepared this brief explanation of how the Cloud works and why using a cloud server is the more secure option for accessing and backing up your dental practice data.
What is the Cloud, Anyway?
In a nutshell, it means that rather than storing and accessing your data from an on-site (local) server, it is stored on powerful offsite servers (known as cloud servers) and accessed via the internet. Depending on the application, it may also be stored and accessed from the cloud server. cloud computing has been around since the 1960s but it’s only in recent years that cloud computing and cloud storage have become widely available. This shift happened when companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google started marketing cloud storage services to businesses and the public.
Chances are, you already use cloud services a lot more than you think – your last Netflix bingeing session of Stranger Things wouldn’t be possible without this technology. But some dental practice owners are still reluctant to access their records from the Cloud and store backups there because they worry that the Cloud is less secure than storing information on their own computers. But are these concerns actually warranted?
Is the Cloud Server Platform Safe?
The short answer to this question is yes – not only is the Cloud safe, but it actually offers more security than other data access, backup and storage methods.
When you store all of your live data on-site, there are a number of risks. Because your data is literally being stored on hard drives in your office, all someone needs to do is remove the hard drives and all the information stored on them will be lost. Even if you have kept a backup of your data on a separate storage medium, it will only be as up to date as the last time you did a backup. Furthermore, you have no way of knowing if your backup is valid. As a result, on-site data access and storage represents a huge vulnerability for any dental practice.
On-site storage also exposes your data to potential accidents or natural disasters. For example, with offices that experience floods or fires, there is a very real possibility that many years’ worth of information will be lost – particularly if backups are store on-site as well. The old adage about not putting all your eggs in one basket definitely applies here.
Will a Cloud Platform Affect How My Dental Practice Accesses Files?
Yes and no. When you use cloud servers to store your information, you are taking an important step toward preventive theft and loss of data. But this doesn’t mean it will be more difficult to access.
Not only do cloud server solutions store client information more securely, coupled with data encryption, they enable secure integrated, automated, patient communication solutions. These provide a safe and efficient means of information exchange between the practice and patients via email and text, particularly for appointment reminders and confirmation.
Another advantage of cloud computing is convenience: because data is stored in the Cloud rather than on local hard drives, your team members can access information from anywhere, on almost any device. And should there be a data security breach, access devices are not affected. If your workstations are damaged in a natural disaster or fire, all your information is already safely backed up remotely in the Cloud.
For these reasons, cloud-based practice management software is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for dental practices.
Don’t take any chances with your patients’ data; consider switching over to a cloud server solution specifically designed for use by dental practices. If you decide to stay with a local server solution for data storage, at the very least, make sure your practice data is regularly backed up in the cloud.
